


A Flashback. . .

by Deborah_Jean



Series: Rare Specimens [4]
Category: Moominvalley (Cartoon 2019), Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson
Genre: Baking, Fluff, Found Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:21:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29182458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deborah_Jean/pseuds/Deborah_Jean
Summary: A gruff, yet kind maid impacts a child's life. Knollermaiden never forgets the lessons Olma taught her as a child. . ....This is part of a series, but you don't have to read the others before this one. You could even call this a prequel I suppose.
Series: Rare Specimens [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2027936
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	A Flashback. . .

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Back with another one-shot! ヽ(◕ヮ◕ヽ)
> 
> Hope you enjoy

Knollermaiden was standing on a footstool to reach the counter. She had rolled up her sleeves and she was holding on to a little bowl with some vanilla in it, waiting for Olma to tell her when to add it.

Olma was cracking eggs into the main bowl with skilled efficiency. She had a gruff, efficient manner about her, and she was almost always scowling to some degree, but when she was in the kitchen it lightened a little bit.

“Go on,” Olma said shortly after she finished with the eggs, swiftly discarding the shells in a small bucket.

Knollermaiden was beaming, bouncing a little where she stood. She dumped in the vanilla, careful not to spill.

Olma added the cocoa, and Knollermaiden the flour. Olma the salt, Knollermaiden the baking powder.

Olma held out the spatula and pushed the bowl in front of Knollermaiden.

Knollermaiden let out a tiny, nonsensical, happy noise, and eagerly took it and began stirring the batter. 

Olma bustled about, checking the oven and such, bringing over the pan they would be pouring the batter into.

“Hey, Olma?” Knollermaiden said curiously.

“Yes ma’am?” Olma replied absently, focused on her task. Knollermaiden didn’t quite understand why Olma always called her ma’am. She was still quite a small kid, she knew. Her tutor said it was because Olma was her parents’ maid, and thus her maid, and it was a part of respect, but Knollermaiden didn’t get why it was like that.

“How did you learn to bake?” Knollermaiden asked, looking at her with wonder.

Olma wiped her hand on her apron and leaned one hand on the counter as she thought. 

“Hmm. . I think my grandmother was the first one to teach me. I just kept on after that,” Olma said with a shrug, her voice as gruff and efficient as her mannerisms. She was quickly back on track to what she was doing, tidying up dishes and putting them in the sink.

“What was she like?” Knollermaiden asked, eyes sparkling with curiosity. 

Olma kept her hands busy, swift as a viper as she worked.

“Hm. . She was even more snippety than I am,” she smirked, a rare sight on the old maid. “And she was a lot less forgiving when you’d spill the flour, or sneak a taste without asking, or overmix,” Olma sounded rather stern, but playful. She froze, turning around with squinty, suspicious eyes. “You’re not overmixing the batter are you?”

Knollermaiden glanced down at the bowl in front of her. Everything was already combined. She didn’t know for how long though. She stopped mixing and turned a little pink, chuckling nervously. 

“. . . Possibly?”

Olma shook her head exasperatedly, but the corners of her mouth were upturned in a smile.

She came over and scooped the bowl up, giving it a good, quick look before she started scraping the batter into the pan. 

“It looks ok. Just keep your head in the game next time,” Olma said, nudging Knollermaiden’s arm with her elbow and giving her a smile.

Knollermaiden was still grinning, letting out a relieved breath that the batter wasn’t ruined or anything.

Olma put down the bowl rather hard. “See? Exactly like that. You better be glad you got me instead of my granny, or she’d be giving you a stern lecture right now,” She said, huffing a little in what Knollermaiden recognized as an Olma laugh.

Olma grabbed the pan and walked it to the oven, placing it inside and quickly coming back for the bowl, plopping it in the sink, and grabbing a rag to start washing.

Knollermaiden got off of her stool so she could look at the brownie pan through the oven door. Down on the ground, she was barely tall enough to pass Olma’s hips.

“Yeah, Granny was stern and snippety. But she taught me some very important things too,” Olma mused, scrubbing dishes and depositing them into the other side of the sink to be rinsed. She glanced at Knollermaiden and gave her an important look. “She taught me about how important it is to be kind in a world that rarely is. She taught me that kindness isn’t soft or weak. The kindest people are forged in fire, and darkness, and imploding stars. If you throw a punch, you’ll break your paw. They’re kind because they know first hand that the world isn’t,” Olma said, giving her a serious look. 

Knollermaiden stared at her with wide eyes, taking that in with some awe. 

“I try to be like her,” Olma said, drifting off, back into her work. “Granny was like that. The kind of person you’d break your paw on if you tried to attack her. Sure, she was gruff, but she was gentle when it counted, and she gave so much to the world, and she had a whole village of people who came to her for advice and help, and they all called her granny whether they were related or not.”

Knollermaiden’s imagination ran wild with that, imagining such a person. 

“Of course, I’m not always as much like her as I want. I lose sight of things like everyone else. I get impatient. I get annoyed,” Olma said, thoughts wandering. “But I’ll keep learning, and I’ll keep trying.”

Knollermaiden pondered on that for a long while. “Well, I think you’re really nice,” Knollermaiden said assuredly. “I think you’re doing a good job.”

Knollermaiden couldn’t see Olma’s face since she had her back turned to the sink, but she could see the way her posture shifted just a bit. 

Knollermaiden smiled sheepishly, smoothing her dress a little. She ended up wandering over to Olma’s side, trying to peek over the side of the counter.

“. . . Can I help?” Knollermaiden asked, glancing up at Olma.

“Your father wouldn’t want you doing dishes,” Olma said, not missing a beat in her work rhythm.

Knollermaiden frowned. “Why not?” She said, a little distraught. 

“You’re a young lady ill-suited to household tasks. Or at least, that’s what he thinks. Believe me, if I was in charge around here you’d be doing the dishes every time you made brownies, and you wouldn’t be asking,” Olma chuckled at the last bit, another very rare sound from her, though it was always more likely when they were in the kitchen and no one else was around.

Knollermaiden giggled a little, but she got a serious look on her face afterward. She went over and grabbed the stool and dragged it over to the sink just as Olma started putting rinsed dishes on the drying rack.

Olma glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. 

“I think I should help,” Knollermaiden said stoutly. “It’s the kind thing to do, right?” 

Olma wasn’t expecting that remark and huffed a little bit in laughter, shaking her head.

“Sometimes, but not when it’s something that could get me in trouble with your father,” she said.

Knollermaiden frowned, rather distraught and distressed by that. A minute later she crouched down and sat on her little stool, cupping her chin with her paw and biting her lip.

Olma noticed her distress. “Woah, hey, it’s not something to get upset over,” Olma said, wringing her hands and wiping them on a towel. “You don’t need to worry about it. I don’t mind doing dishes by myself. If I really minded cleaning, I never would have gotten a job as a maid.”

Knollermaiden stared at her, not fully over her funk.

Olma sighed. “You know, I’m happy enough that you offered, and that you’re determined to be kind,” she smiled, crouching down to Knollermaiden’s level. “It makes me really proud.”

Knollermaiden’s mouth was hanging open a little. She was speechless, and a little pink again. She was practically glowing, grabbing the hem of her dress, feeling all warm inside.

Someone opened the door and Olma stood up, her usual scowl sliding over her features.

Knollermaiden hopped to her feet, a little startled. 

Knollermaiden’s father glanced between the two of them, looking rather annoyed. “There you are, daughter. What are you doing in _here_ again?” He said, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

Knollermaiden glanced between her father and Olma, freezing up.

“I. . .”

“She wandered in and wanted to keep me company, sir,” Olma said casually, picking up a towel to dry the dishes.

“Be quiet. She can answer me herself,” Knollermaiden’s father said annoyedly, giving them pointed looks.

Knollermaiden was still rather frozen up, taking a minute to form words under his scrutinizing gaze. “. . I just wanted to see her, so I kept her company.”

Knollermaiden’s father gave her a look which she recognized that made her purse her lips and shrink back with some dread. He was probably going to give her a stern lecture later which definitely won’t be fun. He put it off for later though.

“Mother wants you in your room. We’re having guests over soon and she wants to make sure you look presentable. Come along,” he snapped his fingers impatiently and Knollermaiden trotted over sullenly. She glanced back at Olma and gave her a wave before heading out on his tail.

Olma had a peculiar expression that Knollermaiden didn’t know how to read, hidden under her usual face. 

Knollermaiden already knew that evening was likely to be dreadful. Mother would probably pick an itchy dress, and the guests that came didn’t usually have anyone her age she could talk with, and the grown-up chatter would be boring and she’d have to sit there in the itchy dress for an hour or two before she was sent to bed and the adults stayed up chatting in the parlor.

She sighed.

………

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine Olma being in her late forties here. If you have ideas for character designs for her, you can tell me in the comments :D I really have no clue what kind of creature to make her.
> 
> One day I'm going to draw tiny Knollermaiden and she's going to be adorable and I might come back and put it on here.
> 
> If you're new here and you're curious about what's going on, you can check out the rest of the series!
> 
> Hope you have a good day :) Remember to drink some water


End file.
